Rokita was right about Medicaid

The April 14 Behind Closed Doors suggested that Rep. Todd Rokita didn't get the memo about checking the facts regarding the impact of Medicaid on patients. Apparently, had he read the analysis by PolitiFact, he would have presumably come to a more enlightened conclusion.

One finds it ironic that Rokita is challenged to check the facts concerning his reference to the 2010 University of Virginia study about the negative ramifications of Medicaid on its recipients. While the authors of the study do reference additional contributing factors to this disparity between Medicaid and private insurance, their overall analysis supports Rokita's basic assertion. They conclude, "Our results indicate that Medicaid and Uninsured payer status confers worse unadjusted and adjusted outcomes compared with that of private insurance. We have shown that Medicaid and uninsured status also independently increases the risk of adjusted in-hospital mortality, and that Medicaid status further increases the risk of adjusted in-hospital complications compared with those with private insurance."

This example serves to remind us that original sourcing should trump secondary analysis of original sources even by the self-proclaimed fact checkers among us. If we are to get serious about resolving our national health-care crisis, it is imperative that we face reality as it is and not as we might wish it to be. Upon this fact, I trust we can all find common ground.

John Crane

Indianapolis

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Rokita was right about Medicaid

The April 14 Behind Closed Doors suggested that Rep. Todd Rokita didn't get the memo about checking the facts regarding the impact of Medicaid on patients.